Assir

Assir is the name given in the genealogies of Levi to two — and possibly three — different men, all of them traced through the Kohathite branch of the priestly tribe. The name appears once in Exodus and three times in the Levitical pedigrees of 1 Chronicles 6, and a further Assir is sometimes identified in the Davidic line of 1 Chronicles 3, though the UPDV rendering of that verse treats the underlying Hebrew word as the common noun "captive" rather than as a proper name. The umbrella thus gathers two clearly named Levites of the Kohathite line and one disputed reading in the post-exilic royal genealogy.

Assir Son of Korah

The first Assir is named at the close of the Levitical pedigree given in Exodus, immediately after the account of Korah's family within the wider house of Kohath. The verse lists the three sons of Korah together and labels their lines as a clan: "And the sons of Korah: Assir, and Elkanah, and Abiasaph; these are the families of the Korahites" (Ex 6:24). Assir stands first in the triad, and the verse identifies the three brothers as the heads of the Korahite families that will continue in the Levitical service.

The Chronicler picks up the same pedigree but configures it as a single descending line rather than a triad of brothers. In his Kohathite genealogy Assir appears as Korah's son and the next link after him: "The sons of Kohath: Amminadab his son, Korah his son, Assir his son," (1Ch 6:22). The same sequence — Korah, then Assir — is retained, but it is now framed as a generational descent through one preferred son.

Assir in the Line of Heman the Singer

A second Assir surfaces a few generations later in the same Kohathite stem. The Chronicler's pedigree continues from the earlier Assir down through Elkanah and Ebiasaph, and a second occurrence of the name then appears: "Elkanah his son, and Ebiasaph his son, and Assir his son," (1Ch 6:23). This Assir is the son of Ebiasaph, not the son of Korah, and stands one or more generations later than the first.

The pedigree of Heman the singer in the same chapter confirms the second Assir at the same position. Tracing Heman back up the Kohathite line, the Chronicler names the same three figures — Tahath, Assir, Ebiasaph — in reverse order: "the son of Tahath, the son of Assir, the son of Ebiasaph, the son of Korah," (1Ch 6:37). The repeated name across the descending list (1Ch 6:23) and the ascending list (1Ch 6:37) ties the two notices to the same man and places him securely in the Kohathite-Korahite line that produces Heman, one of David's three guild-heads of temple song.

Assir in the Royal Genealogy

A third Assir is sometimes gathered under a separate sub-heading as a son of Jeconiah, listed among the descendants of David after the Babylonian deportation. The UPDV rendering of the verse, however, does not name a separate son: "And the sons of Jeconiah, the captive: Shealtiel his son," (1Ch 3:17). The Hebrew word that older translations render as the proper name "Assir" is here translated as the common noun "the captive," a descriptor of Jeconiah himself rather than the name of an additional son. On this reading the verse names only Shealtiel as Jeconiah's son in the immediate clause, and the surrounding catalogue of Jeconiah's other sons follows in the next verse: "and Malchiram, and Pedaiah, and Shenazzar, Jekamiah, Hoshama, and Nedabiah" (1Ch 3:18). Where a third Assir is posited, the UPDV wording locates the same Hebrew word in the description of Jeconiah's exile rather than in the list of his offspring.